Parshat Terumah 5776: Tribute to the Tachash
Shira Smiles shiur – 2016/5776
Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Parshat Terumah contains the beautiful verse that reveals Hashem’s love for us. He tells us, “Make for Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” The parsha then continues with detailed instructions on how to build the structure and all the vessels necessary for the services to be conducted therein. Obviously, something of this symbolic significance must be invested with much thought and meaning in every piece of material and in every inch of its structure. It is with this in mind that we will focus on one element of the Mishkan, of the sanctuary Bnei Yisroel were to build.
While most of the materials Hashem asked Bnei Yisroel to contribute to the building of the Mishkan are familiar, gold, silver, wood, wool, and so forth, there is one that is unknown to us. This is the skin (hide) of an animal called the tachash. This skin was to be used as a covering above the entire Mishkan. The Gemara Shabbos explains that this was a beautiful, multi colored animal that existed only at that time, neither before from creation nor after, and then became extinct. Onkelos then writes that the tachash sos gavna, rejoices and prides itself in its colors. Since this animal existed at no other time or place, there would be no name for it in any other language. Therefore, explains Rashi, Onkelos is not translating the word but explaining it.
Shenayim Mikra takes Onkelos translation and explains the words differently. Instead of writing that the tachash rejoices (sos) in its colors, Shenayim Mikra reads it as six (shesh) colors. Using this interpretation, the Ohel Yosef writes that the six colors represent the six sefirot, the six emanations through which God is manifest in the world. The seventh sefirah is Malchut, the sovereignty of God Himself, above all the others and above the Mishkan. The tachash was created and existed only within this very short time frame in the desert so that its special skin could be used in the construction of the Mishkan after which time it became extinct.
If we say that the tachash was prideful in its colors, we are implying that it was arrogant. This presents a problem to the Shvilei Pinchas who reminds us that haughtiness is antithetical to God’s presence. How could the tachash then be used for the place of Hashem’s dwelling? Rabbi Raphael Blum in Tal Hashamayim answers that question very simply: The Tachash took pride for the short time that it was in the service of Hashem. Even a Talmid Chacham can have a small bit of measured pride for doing Hashem’s will, writes Hashir Vehashevach. After all, much pride he cannot have, for he knows that he was created from dust. Therefore, posits Hashir Vehashevach, thetachash must be other worldly, created from outside this world to exist for only a short time to help us feel Hashem’s presence, for only in the Mishkan where Hashem presence is manifest can we find pride (haughtiness) and greatness (ga’avah u’gedulah) together.
Hashem’s presence in this world was palpable only two times, first during creation and then at the giving of the Torah at Sinai, and will be palpable again with the coming of the Moshiach. Each of these times is represented by a different part of the Shabbos day when Hashem’s presence is again close to us. Friday night represents creation when creation was completed. Shabbat day represents that Shabbat day when we received the Torah. Shabbat evening, the time of the third meal, represents the yearning for Moshiach.
Rabbi Belsky (whose loss we mourn this week) writes in Einei Yisroel that the Ramban notes, that the Mishkan in the desert, constructed immediately after our stand at Sinai, was meant to eternalize the vents of Sinai within Klal Yisroel. He supports his point by noting that just as Sinai had concentric boundaries beyond which only some could go until only Moshe himself could ascend the mountain, so too did the Mishkan have boundaries for different people, from the Holy of Holies into which only Aharon could enter all the way to the outer courtyard for all of Bnei Yisroel. As Rabbi Pliskin notes, the grandeur of the Mishkan was because of God’s presence. When one approached the Mishkan, one would be awed by God’s grandeur, and all one’s pride and arrogance would melt away. In God’s presence, he would truly recognize his own lowliness and realize that only God could raise him up. The closer one is to God, the more humble one becomes. Therefore, the Torah bears witness, Moshe who was closer to God than any other man, was the humblest of all men.
The Shvilei Pinchas, Rabbi Pinchas Friedman, takes a different approach as he focuses on the beautiful colors of the tachash and what they represent within the Mishkan, the Ohel Moed, Tent of Meeting. Rabbi Friedman notes that each side of the Mishkan represented one of our forefathers. The right side represented Avraham and his attribute of chessed (kindness); the left side represented Yitzchak and his attribute of gevurah (severity, strength, restraint). But there was a center bar that went from one side to the other, bridging the gap and joining the two. This bar represents Yaakov whose attribute was tiferes, glory and splendor which is the point at which chessed and gevurahmeet in balance. Yaakov, who is described as a dweller in tents, thus joined the “tent” of his father Yitzchak to the “tent” of his grandfather Avraham, forging a solid bond between them.
Where did these side beams and especially the center beam come from? When Hashem commanded that the Mishkan be constructed, He commanded, “You shall make the beams … of acacia wood, standing erect.” In other words, these were to be made of wood already specified for that purpose. Their source offers further validation to the idea that the Mishkan is most closely associated with Yaakov Avinu. When Yaakov went down to Egypt with his family, the move that would begin the enslavement of Bnei Yisroel, he planted acacia trees in Egypt, knowing through Divine inspiration that Hashem would command the building of a structure that would require acacia wood. Before his death, Yaakov commanded his children that when the redemption occurs, they are to take these trees with them. It is these trees that were to become the beams of the Mishkan. Further, Rabbi Friedman notes that whenever Hashem says “for Me,” as He does here with, Make for Me a sanctuary …,” it denotes eternity. According to the Gemarrah, although the Mishkan was indeed dismantled, it was never destroyed and all its parts remained hidden under the tunnels of the Heichal, the great hall of the Beit Hamikdosh.
It is from this line of reasoning that the Shvilei Pinchas cites the Alshich in noting that the first Beit Hamikdosh was in the merit of Avraham Avinu but was destroyed because of Yishmael, Avraham’s son. The second Beit Hamikdosh was built in the merit of Yitzchak Avinu but was destroyed because of Esau. The third Beit Hamikdosh will be built in the merit of Yaakov Avinu and will incorporate the hidden elements of the Mishkan within it. Likewise, as the middle link in attributes, Yaakov incorporates within himself the attributes of Avraham and Yitzchak.
This idea brings us back to the tachash, the beautiful multi hued animal. Avraham and Yitzchak are each represented by a single color, Avraham by the white of chessed and Yitzchak by the red of strength. Yaakov, on the other hand, is represented by green. (Green is the middle color of the rainbow, bridging the opposite extremes.) The tachash was important not because it was a specific animal, but rather because its skin had the ability to incorporate many colors and create a beautiful synthesis to create tiferet, splendor.
Nevertheless, the name of the animal itself alludes to this synthesis, as tachash is an anagram for Torah, chaim and shalom. [These three things are what a person merits who sees a well in their dreams. Yaakov upon entering Charan sees a well, and three flocks, representing these three elements, by the well.] Yaakov represented each of these elements. He sat in the tents of Shem and Ever and studied Torah, the Gemarrah says Yaakov Avinu never died, (chaim), and he was able to create the balance and peace between the gentle chessed of Avraham and the harsh strength of Yitzchak, hence shalom. However, when the forces of evil corrupt this balance, we get the reverse anagram, shachat, destruction. Like the tachash, Yaakov takes pride in synthesizing these elements and creating a new and beautiful “color.” It is this synthesis that covers the entire Mishkan and is the source of shalom.
The Chasam Sofer adds that unity of purpose creates this shalom. While the children of Esau are recorded as six souls, in the plural, the family of Yaakov descending to Egypt is recorded as seventy soul, in the singular. The Chasam Sofer posits that each of Esau’s descendants either worshipped a different god or, even if they worshipped the one true God, each was motivated by his own, personal agenda. Bnei Yisroel, on the other hand, were all motivated by the single desire to worship Hashem and were united around this goal, much as a circle consists of many points each equidistant from the central focus.
Rabbi Ben Zion Firer explains this point more fully. The tachash was a kosher animal that was created to teach a unique lesson. While it was one animal and was completely kosher (else it could not have been used in the construction of the Mishkan), it contained within it many different, beautiful hues. So is Bnei Yisroel all centered around one unchanging halacha, the specific laws of Jewish observance. However, each person and each group brings to this observance its individual beauty and perspective in the form of custom and tradition. Witness, for example, a Sephardi wedding and an Ashkenazi wedding, or a Sephardi and Ashkenazi bris. The major elements are the same, but what beauty there is as different customs are introduced within that framework. That was the lesson and significance of the tachash of many colors that would surround the central law of the Mishkan. The Mishkan itself is exact, but the tachash that surrounds it represents the diversity and individuality we each bring to that observance.
There are many ways to serve Hakodosh Boruch Hu writes Rabbi Brazile in Bishvili Nivra Haolam. Therefore there are twelve distinct tribes, each with its own attributes and each capable of serving Hashem in its own way. The very word for tribe, shevet, bears witness to the truth of these multiple paths. The first two letters shev, mean clalm and peaceful, while the T is equal to nine. Nine is a mathematically perfect number. The digits that form the product of any multiple of nine can be added and will in turn total nine: 18=1+8; 27=2+7, etc. That perfection is truth. Each of us is a unique combination of nature and nurture, of our genetics and our environment, and so each of us has a unique path and a unique goal in our service to God. In the same manner, the tachash was also created to fulfill a unique purpose in a specific moment of time, notes Rabbi Frand. Like the tachash, continues Rabbi Brazile, we can each be happy and proud when we realize that there is none other like me who can fulfill my specific purpose on earth. The tachas short lived existence bears witness to the primacy of each individual being created for their unique purpose for our short sojourn in this world. It is the Torah Shelaymah who notes that it was the observer rather than thetachash who became happy and proud upon seeing the tachash and recognizing his own uniqueness in the world.
Not everybody merited being able to find a tachash and donate it for the Mishkan. The Modzitzer Rebbe gives us a wonderful interpretation for appreciating the tachash. Only he who wassameach bechelko, happy in his personal lot and portion, was given the opportunity to locate atachash writes the Rebbe. Someone who recognized that his chelek, was a path for his unique journey to serving Hakodosh Boruch Hu would be able to appreciate his own uniqueness and relate it to the tachash. He who saw what was cham warm- in his life, what was lach - wet and damp - what was kar – cold and uncomfortable – as well as yavesh, dry, would know that every hue and tone, every nuance and color in his life made him a unique vessel in Hashem’s service. He is happy with his lot, knowing that Hashem has provided for all his needs.
The tachash provides us with lessons in appropriate pride tempered with the humility that is the mainstay of our service to our Creator. It teaches us that our diversity and multiple hues present a beautiful and textured setting for Hashem’s presence to rest among us, for although each of us is unique, together we represent the glorious multiplicity of the universe and our unique placement within it.